Re: ADT Not Working

[pausch@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <3A876489.6E37ADE0@nowhere.net>,  <noone@nowhere.net> wrote:
 
> OK Paul, you do not have a SSC, so these instructions do not partain to
> you.  If you want some assitance, with your setup, please ask.  I'll
> help if I can.  If you can't do the type-in process, find a SSC so you
> can utilize this or ask for a DOS33 disk with ADT loaded.  (And you
> probably want the ADT for non-Super Serial cards.)  (I might even be
> able to loacte s cheap SSC, if you think you need one.
 
Thanks you, but I've already managed to get ADT running on my Comm
Card some time last spring: I had to do some modifications to the
APple II component of the ADT software, i.e. I am the author of that
"ADT for non-Super Serial cards".  You can download it from my web site,
at:  http://hotel04.ausys.se/pausch/apple2/adt_sc.zip
 
> Paul, try not to run too much other stuff simultaniously on your WinDoze
> computer.  Windows is notorious about being a memory hog and slows even
> the fastest CPU down.  When running Windows, depending on what programs
> are running in conjunction with ADT, your milage _will_ vary.
 
Don't worry -- I almost never run DOS software which accesses the
hardware on Windoze computers precisely for the reasons you bring up
here -- I prefer to run these on plain DOS.
 
As a matter of fact I'm currently porting the PC side of the ADT
application from DOS to a Win32 console application.  When run, it
will *look* the same, but underneath it accesses the serial port
through the Win32 API, which ought to mean much better performance
for "ADT-32" when running it on Windoze concurrently with other apps.
 
> As for older, slower PCs, 19200 will not need a buffering chip if you
> use real DOS.  I have done sucessful ADT transfers from DOS Mode in
> Win31, Win95, and Win98.  (I dont' have WinME.)
 
FYI: Win31 has no "DOS mode" -- that was introduced with Win95.  On
Win31 you either ran a DOS box (i.e. a virtual DOS machine), or else
you had to exit Win31 to return to plain DOS.
 
BTW even in Win95 you can actually "exit Windows and return to DOS",
even though most people seem unaware of it.  Here's how to do it:
 
1. Set BootGUI=0 in your MSDOS.SYS
 
2. End your AUTOEXEC.BAT with a "win" command.  If you have no
AUTOEXEC.BAT, create one.
 
3. Start Win95 as usual, do whatever you want, and when you're
finished, tell Win95 to "turn off the computer"
 
4. When the "Win95 shutting down" screen appears, wait a few seconds
until there's no longer any disk access.  Now you're back in plain
DOS; although you don't see it because of that "Win95 shutting down"
graphics screen.  Type "mode co80" to get rid of that and to return
to text mode.  Of course you could instead, in your AUTOEXEC.BAT, put
a "mode co80" command after the "win" command.  Or you could remove
that "Win95 shutting down" screen, which is stored as a .SYS file in
either the Windows directory or the root directory.
 
 
> I've sucessfully run transfers on 486-66 with Win95 and pentium
> class 100 MHz with Win95 & Win98.  (Everything works from real DOS,
> although I've never tried with anything less than a 386DX40.)
 
OK, I guess my experience comes from running my good ol' 16 MHz 386
(which indeed could give you problems if you ran it faster than 9600
bps with a non-buffered UART i.e. 16550 or earlier.  Exchanging the
UART to a 16550A made all those problems disappear -- if your UART
interrupt routine had support for buffered UART's of course.
 
> Of course if you really need them, you can replace the UARTS on your
> serial card with buffering UARTS, they are usually pin compatible.
 
Been there, done that -- but it needs to be done only on older PC's.
New PC's always have buffered UART's.
 
 
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlyter,  Swedish Amateur Astronomer's Society (SAAF)
Grev Turegatan 40,  S-114 38 Stockholm,  SWEDEN
e-mail:  pausch at saaf dot se   or    paul.schlyter at ausys dot se
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